Hi everybody, i have just purchased the sigma 18-200mm lens, and these are the first photos i have taken with this lens. Many a time i have been in situations where i havent been able to change my lens due to dusty places and sacrificed many a photo because i never had the right lens on. So im hoping this little `baby` siggy is the answer. Im not as experienced as many of you on cl and so i have on taken on program mode.Both have been cropped and i have tweaked the exposure contrast. I am going to London on Sunday, and intend to really see what this little siggy can do.

Both were taken at 24mm and ISO 400
#1 = f.5.6 1/60
#2 = f.6.3 1/80
Hoping to go through the whole range when i give this a proper try out.
I have posted these on photo of the day, sorry to double post, and if this wrong please delete if necessary. Regards sue

p.s. hope this post for this lens is ok, only i have not seen one on here.

Congrats on the new glass naniani! I'm sure you'll be happy with your decision. The camera mode i find myself using the most it the Av (aperture priority). occasionally if i really want full control of my camera i'll switch it into full manual. You just need to try new things (thats my new years resolution). I look forward to seeing more thoughts of the lens!

Excellent photos, nice showcase of the focal range. Been looking at replacing my 17-85 with a 18-200 or 28-135 ish walkaround. I only just noticed that this 'OS' Sigma has image stabilisation cos their previous one didn't? Tis something I deem useful at telephoto end. As this pretty much squares up against Canon's 18-200 offering, the main difference is price with Sigma being two thirds that of the Canon.

The images are sharp here, but do you or anyone have any comments/experience about how good the stabilisation is? Or generally any pros and cons vs the Canon?

@naniani: Are those shots hand held? I have this same lens but even with the OS enabled I cannot get such sharp shots.

Here are my sample pics taken with this lens:

51mm
f5.0
1/320
ISO200

96mm
f5.6
1/100
ISO500

200mm
f6.3
1/125
ISO800
In this picture I was trying to capture the bee leaving the flower but it did not come out too sharp.

All of these pictures were hand-held and with OS on. The lens is very heavy but I don't care. I like the range and the build quality seems good. I do not know how good the OS system is since I have nothing to compare it to but when you scrutinize my images you can see that they are not that sharp when hand-held.

Sighman, i am extremely pleased with this lens, and since i bought this in January i have used nothing else, i love it. I have the OS on all the time, and have been happy with the results of my photos. I wanted a lens for travelling, and this lens was what i was looking for. Although i have a Canon camera, the cost of the canon lens was a lot more than the siggy, and watching the pennies, it was the siggy that won. It is a sturdy made lens, and i thought it would be heavier than it is, but i was surprised, although the barrel can be a little bit stiff turning from 50 - 80mm but i am now used to it. I actually tried this lens on my camera in the shop before purchasing it and i know it was meant for me. sue

Hugo, yes all my photos are hand-held, i have not used my tripod yet. I personally think you first two photos are fine its the last one that i think is not so sharp. sue

@Hugo, hi, may I make a suggestion. With expererience of my nikkor 70-300 I've learn't (from others) as well as use, the lens gets sharper using a smaller aperture ie. f8-11. i think this helps with a wider depth of field but also sharpness at the point of focus. With your OS on this lens slower shutter speeds should be OK without shake.
John

@Hugo, hi, may I make a suggestion. With expererience of my nikkor 70-300 I've learn't (from others) as well as use, the lens gets sharper using a smaller aperture ie. f8-11. i think this helps with a wider depth of field but also sharpness at the point of focus. With your OS on this lens slower shutter speeds should be OK without shake.John

Thank you for the suggestion. The thing with this lens is that the maximum aperture size is pretty small already. At 200mm it is f6.3! Decreasing it even more would almost guarantee blurry hand held pictures even with OS enabled.

I will try and decrease the aperture from now on and see how they come out. Hopefully I can steady my hand enough

Here are some more samples for whoever is considering buying this lens:

I have a question regarding the minimum aperture of f6.3 at the wide end of the lens.
Some brochures and literature suggest that cross-type sensors will only work with lenses of aperture minimum of f5.6, sooo, does this effect the longer 200mm end of the lens in terms of AF performance? I would consider lenses such as this if i was sure about the AF performance, so basically, i ask of you, have you noticed any trouble with such aperture? Or does anyone know about such a problem?

@Hugo, hi, may I make a suggestion. With expererience of my nikkor 70-300 I've learn't (from others) as well as use, the lens gets sharper using a smaller aperture ie. f8-11. i think this helps with a wider depth of field but also sharpness at the point of focus. With your OS on this lens slower shutter speeds should be OK without shake.John

As for the sharpness, check the MTF resolution charts on various websites, here is the MTF charts for the Nikon 70-300mm f4.5-5.6VR on
http://www.photozone.de